Kirsten Verdun and Alex Vekich pose on stairway during the recent Be The Match bone marrow donor registration drive.

June 4, 2014

CHICAGO - When it comes to potentially saving a life, there was no holding back Alex Vekich and Kirsten Verdun.

The pair of DePaul student-athletes and Captains' Council officers spearheaded a campus bone marrow registration drive May 20-21 at the student center and signed up 214 people in a total of eight hours.

Enlisting the help of 20 other student-athletes, Vekich and Verdun coordinated their efforts through DePaul community service administrator Dave Corzine and Lauren Johnson, local representative for the Be The Match national marrow donor program.

Be The Match operates the Be The Match Registry, the world's largest listing of potential marrow donors and donated cord blood units.

Every year, thousands of people of all ages are diagnosed with blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma, sickle cell anemia or other life-threatening diseases. Seventy percent of people do not have a donor in their family and depend on the Be The Match Registry to find a match to save their life.

"My mom had cancer," said Vekich who competed in track and field. "I know what it's like to go through something like that. It happened when I was 10 years old. She is good now, alive and healthy.

"This was something I could do that would benefit somebody else. It was only four hours a day for two days. What's eight hours in comparison to somebody's lifetime?"

Vekich and Verdun---a Second Team All-American softball pitcher---got their competitive juices flowing with a personal challenge.

"When it comes to athletes, we get a little competitive out there," Vekich said with a smile. "Kirsten and I had a little contest to see who could sign up the most people. It was Team Verdun versus Team Vekich. It was close---let's call it a tie.

"My approach would be: `Do you have a minute to save a life?' Towards the end of the first day, we had signed up 85 people and there was 15 minutes left. We had set a goal of 100 registrations per day. We were relentless, and in those last 15 minutes we signed up 15 more people."

They helped clear up a stereotype of bone marrow donor registration.

"Alex and I did the research and learned all about the process for bone marrow donations," said Verdun who signed a contract with Chicago Bandits and began her National Pro Fastpitch career last week.

"When you mention bone marrow donor to most people, they think about this huge needle going into you. But once you explain to them that registering is simply signing up and having the inside of your mouth swabbed with a cotton Q-tip, they relax and get involved. About one in 500 goes on to donate.

"The chance of having that needle is pretty small. And, even if you are a match, much of the time you can be a donor through a blood transfusion. The stigma surrounding bone marrow donation is really powerful."

Vekich noticed the same thing.

"People from Be The Match Registry in Chicago were there to explain everything," Vekich said. "At first, people were hesitant to sign up. But all of us working had done it, and as they learned about the process, it became less scary.

"By coincidence, there was a girl manning a student housing booth next to us who had received a bone marrow transplant when she was younger. It was amazing to find out someone my age had gotten a transplant.

"It made me realize the importance of what I was doing and put a purpose behind the cause. What are the chances that someone in the next booth who is my age would have had a bone marrow transplant?"